If They Lived
by AccioNerdBird
Summary: If Lily and James had lived. A re-telling of the Harry Potter story with an au of James and Lily being alive and Sirius not going to Askaban. New villains emerge and despite that Voldemort never laid a finger on Harry, Harry's life can still be very complicated.
1. Chapter 1

Mr and Mrs Potter, of Potter Manor, were proud to say they they were perfectly abnormal, thank you very much. They were the type of people who were completely unfazed by all things strange or unusual.

Mr Potter was the head auror at the Ministry of Magic. He was a tall, thin man with a shock of untidy jet black hair, kind hazel eyes which held a mischievous spark and horn rimmed glasses. Mrs Potter was a beautiful willowy woman with fiery red hair which was usually in a bun secured by a paintbrush and bright green almond shaped eyes. The Potters only had one son and today was his 11th birthday.

By all accounts a young mans 11th birthday was one of the most important of his life. At least in the magical community that is. After all, it is when a young girl or boy gets the letter that will change their life forever.

James Potter smiled as he argued with his wife. "I want to wake him up Lil, you got to do it on his birthday last year, this year it's my turn. "

Lily Potter paused from flipping the pancakes she was cooking to continue to argue her case against her husband "If I do recall correctly James, and you know I do, last year I got halfway to Harry's door then a certain someone bowled me over and raced into his room to wake him up."

James blushed before continuing "Yes, that is possibly true"

"Possibly?" Lily interrupted him with a raised eyebrow before he could continue.

"Okay," James admitted "That point does hold merit"

Lily grinned at his admission.

"However," James continued," I have a business proposition for you."

Lily glanced up again from her pancakes with a knowing smirk, "James Henry Potter, if you even think about offering me the marauders map in exchange for waking up our son on one of the most important days of his life I will slap you with this pancake."

Unfazed, James countered her threat, "That's very descriptive Lil but you forget, you owe me one."

Lily rolled her eyes as she plated up the pancakes for her sons' birthday breakfast "And how would I owe you Potter, I thought we had the agreement that since I endured childbirth to produce the beautiful boy we are fighting over, I ceased to owe you anything."

James stared at his beautiful wife who wore a victorious look on her face as she teasingly stared him down. "What if I make Padfoot promise to never chew any of your shoes again?" He offered as a hail Mary for the argument.

Lily raised her eyebrows as she searched her husbands face for any traces of deceit. "Fine," she said, admitting defeat, "Go wake him up before these pancakes go stone cold"

"That is what magic is for." A small voice piped up from the doorway.

Lily and James turned around with a gasp as they saw their young son Harry standing at the kitchen doorway

"How long have you been up buddy?" James asked with a hint of embarrassment

"Long enough to hear you two arguing over who get's to wake me up for the past fifteen minutes," Harry stated as he plopped down on one of the stools at the breakfast counter.

Lily giggled in spite of herself as she saw her husband flush as he heard this.

"Well Happy Birthday sweetheart, I'm sorry we didn't get to wake you up in time" Lily said as she hugged her son over the counter.

James recovered and walked over to Harry. "Yeah, Happy Birthday bud." He ruffled Harry's hair and slid over the pancakes to him.

Harry not-so subtly asked "Has the letter come yet?" with a hopeful expression.

Lily and James exchanged smirks before answering.

"What letter would that be champ?" James asked with a barely contained smile.

"Is it the one from Uncle Remus, because you know that he'll see you in person, later today." Lily offered.

"No," Harry said, frustrated, "I mean the one from…"

"Padfoot?" James interjected, "Bud you know he's coming with Uncle Moony today, we must have reminded you a hundred times."

"No", Harry said, growing increasingly exasperated, "I mean my letter from…"

"Aunt Petunia?" Lily interrupted, "I would hardly think that you would be excited about that, she always sends you a two-word Happy Birthday message and five pounds".

"No", Harry said louder, at his wit's end, "I mean my Hogwarts letter!"

"Oh that, it came this morning" James said matter-of-factly.

"Why didn't you say so earlier, we would have told you." Lily said with a smirk.

"You two are evil!" Harry said teasingly.

"Us" James said shocked.

"Evil" Lily said in a surprised tone.

"Never!" They said in unison before launching a tickle attack on young Harry.

Harry was gasping for air through his laughter until the doorbell rung.

Harry quickly leapt out of his seat and raced towards the door.

Lily and James shared a warm, knowing smile then followed their excitable son to greet their guests at the door.

They found Harry in the arms of Sirius in the midst of a bear hug while Remus and Cartia stood to the side holding large, brightly wrapped presents. Harry moved over to Remus

"Uncle Moony!" He cried out, "You came! Can you and Uncle Padfoot watch me open my Hogwarts letter? I've been saving it for when you guys got here."

Remus and Sirius grinned as Harry hugged their daughter in welcome. The two children had been best friends from the moment they met eleven years ago. The second Sirius found out that Lily and James were expecting a baby he set to work to convince Remus to let them adopt a baby about the age of Harry. However, what Sirius didn't account for was Remus's plan to do the same thing. They soon found little Cartia and they both instantly fell in love with her. Despite Cartia not having any actual inherited genes from either of them it was easy to tell who her parents were. She had all of Sirius's swagger and Remus's dry, sarcastic nature. This was a lethal combination for pulling pranks and general mischief. Combined with the charming yet mischievous Harry, she was the perfect prankster. She and Harry would be going to Hogwarts together in September. All the men (and Lily, although she would never admit it) had told the children about Hogwarts and it's various secret passages and hidden rooms. They had told them all about their pranks and prank wars. James told them all about his glorious quiddich career which entranced Harry so much he was already practicing for tryouts despite first-years not being allowed to try out for house teams. They also told them about Professor Snape who worked with Sirius and Remus at Hogwarts. Remus taught Defense Against the Dark arts and Sirius took over from Professor McGonagall as the Transfiguration professor when she became Headmistress. She took over from the old Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore who was fired the same night that Voldemort died after it was discovered that he had plans to raise either Harry, or young Neville Longbottom to live a life of pain and hardship until they could be killed as a part of Dumbledore's plans. It was decided that perhaps Dumbledore was getting too old for his job and Harry's godmother, Professor McGonagall took over his position. Dumbledore's one condition upon leaving was that Professor Snape would be allowed to continue to work as a Professor of Potions at Hogwarts. Headmistress McGonagall agreed however Sirius was less than impressed when he found out he would be working with "the slime-ball with legs". Minerva had promised to stop by later this afternoon to see her godson on his birthday.

Harry rushed into the living room, practically dragging Remus and Sirius with him. Harry began to move toward his presents when he was stopped by Cartia.

"No, put those down Potter." She said with more authority than most 11 year olds could muster. "You now the deal, Hogwarts letter first, presents after."

Harry sat back down and Lily brought his letter over to him. His fingers were trembling with excitement as he tore open the elegant wax crest which held the envelope closed. He unfolded his letter and read it so quickly his eyes looked like those of someone watching a fast paced tennis match. Harry then got up and danced around the living room, shouting in a singsong voice, "I'M GOING TO HOGWARTS! I'M GOING TO HOGWARTS!" James tackled Harry in a hug and mussed up his hair.

"I'm so proud of you buddy," James said" And you are going to have the best time at Hogwarts, just like Uncle Moony, Uncle Padfoot and I did."

"Don't forget me." Lily piped up from across the room.

Sirius grinned, "Your mum doesn't count Harry, she went to the library for fun."

Lily had a look of fake hurt across her face, "May I remind you Sirius that I was in there with your husband who also found the library fun."

Harry and Cartia both turned to Remus with looks of horror.

"Hey, I will have you know that the Hogwarts library is a very cool and interesting place." Remus said, attempting to defend himself.

"Sure Dad, this is coming from you, who thinks that cardigans are fashionable" Cartia countered.

"She's got a point there Moons." James laughed.

"Can I open my presents from Uncle Moony and Uncle Sirius now?" Harry interjected excitedly.

"Sure thing sweetheart." Lily said with a smile.

Harry tore through the wrapping of his presents while the adults watched, waiting to see his reactions to them.

Harry started with the smaller one, which turned out to be a small golden snitch (when he practiced quiddich with his father they quickly discovered that he was a natural seeker despite James's beliefs that being a chaser was the best position). Cartia offered to hold the snitch while harry opened his other, far larger present from his two uncles.

"What did you guys get him?" Remus murmured to James as Harry struggled with the spellotape holding the wrapping paper on his present.

"A wand from Olivanders, a new wizards chess set, a set of solid gold gobstones and.. well.. see.." James stammered.

"What is it. What was so ridiculously overpriced and over the top this year that has made you this embarrassed?" Sirius demanded as he strode over to James upon hearing his weak stammers.

James flushed before answering "A flying bicycle."

Remus gave James a funny look until James explained "Look Lily showed him that muggle movie E.T and he thought the flying bikes were cool."

Remus laughed, "Really James, you do spoil him"

Suddenly the men turned around as they heard Harry's loud squeal of delight. Remus and Sirius had bought him a brand new Nimbus 2000 racing broom.

"What was that about spoiling him?" James asked Remus with a smirk before going over to his son.

Lily walked over to Sirius and Remus who were beaming as the watched Harry talk brooms with his father and their daughter.

"I can't thank you guys enough, Harry loves you guys being here, and he especially loves his present." Lily said before continuing, "But really it was too much, you too spoil him." Lily reprimanded.

"Please Lily," Remus said calmly, "My last name may still be Lupin but legally I am a Black and that means that the Black family fortune is mine to spend on my favourite nephew."

"And," Sirius interjected, "I really love spending my family's blood money on good things like Harry, or Cartia. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that my mother would be turning in her grave because of my life choices."

Remus laughed as Lily asked "Do you all want to shop for Hogwarts supplies together next week at Diagon Alley?"

"Sure Lil" Sirius said between laughs while watching James try and chase his son outside on brooms.

"Sounds great"


	2. Chapter 2: A Trip To Dragon Alley

_A/N_

 _Hi guys! I just wanted to let you know that while the first few chapters will be very Lily/James/Sirius/Remus centric but in later chapters once Harry goes to Hogwarts it will be much more focused on Harry, Cartia and their friends with some Sirius/Remus professoring_

Potter Manor was an unusual sort of house. It had a huge backyard which James and Harry often turned into a quiddich pitch, rambling vines climbing up the front of the house and perhaps the most unusual thing about it was that it was completely invisible to muggles. The potters used to live in a small cottage in Godric's Hollow but after the wizarding war, Lily and James felt that it had too many negative memories so they moved into James's childhood home, Potter Manor. It had an art studio for Lily who ran a successful gallery in Diagon Alley and a library to suit their every need. It was not abnormal for the Potter house to be loud, between Lily's loud singing while she painted, Harry's yells of joy when he played quiddich and the crashing bangs from James's study when he tripped over something while doing paperwork, the Potter house was often very noisy indeed.

"JAMES!" Lily yelled out. "I CAN'T FIND THE FLOO POWDER! DO YOU KNOW WHERE IT IS?"

James paused from polishing his glasses at the bottom of the landing to reply "HON IT'S RIGHT NEXT TO THE FIREPLACE WHERE IT ALWAYS IS."  
"ARE YOU SURE?" Lily called.

"LIL I'M LOOKING RIGHT AT IT." James yelled.

"You know that you could always just walk up the stairs instead of yelling." James turned to see Harry smirking as he came down the stairs, dressed for their day out.

"I know, but we'll be late if we fuss about any longer and you know how your mum panics."

Harry rolled his eyes and laughed as he called out "MUM, IF WE WAIT ANY LONGER I'LL HAVE TO SHOP FOR MY FIFTH YEAR ROBES."

James and Harry heard Lily's hurried footsteps coming down the staircase as she hurried to join them.

"All right, all right, I'm ready. Have you heard anything from Sirius and Remus?"

"Yep," James confirmed "They just sent a patronus message, they're already waiting for us in Diagon Alley. We don't want to keep them waiting, you know that Remus ends up buying excessive amounts of chocolate when he's bored. It would be disastrous for the sweet shop if we take any longer."

"Well then we'd better get going if the sake of the sweet shop is at stake." Lily said dryly.

"You guys talk too much." Harry said cheekily as he went through the floo fire.

James looked at Lily with barely contained laughter.

"Well there is no doubt that he is _your_ son James." Lily countered as she walked into the flames.

James sheepishly shook his head as he followed his wife through the fire.

When the Potters met the Lupin-Blacks at Diagon alley the excitement between the two young eleven year olds was electric. They had both been waiting for this day for as long as they could remember.

"Can you believe it Harry!" Cartia exclaimed, "We're finally here, finally buying our Hogwarts stuff! And soon we'll be going to Hogwarts! We'll pull pranks, go to the feasts, try and ride the giant squid(this had been a dream of Cartia's ever since her fathers told her about the monster in the lake), try and join the quiddich team and walk through the ghosts!"

"Sweetheart," Remus started, "Don't you think that you're forgetting a rather crutial part of Hogwarts _School_ of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Of course!" Cartia said, " The Sorting!"

Sirius laughed at Remus's exasperated face and attempted to help him "Hon, I don't think that's what Moons meant exactly. I think he was referring to the actual learning and…"

"I hope I get sorted into Gryffindor." Cartia interrupted.

Harry nodded in agreement. James and Lily shared a proud smile that their son was eager to join their former house.

"I mean Ravenclaw sounds ok, but I know that I don't want to be a Slytherin." Cartia continued, "Although the Slytherin common room sounds way cooler than the Gryffindor one, but Gryffindor does have it's own tower so I'm unsure on that one. What do you think Harry?"

"Hufflepuff common room for sure."

"Hufflepuff? Are you insane? They don't have a tower or a cool underwater window or anything."

"Three words Car. Near. The. Kitchens."

Cartia raised a dubious eyebrow at her best friend "You're willing to be sorted into a house you don't even have the values for because of proximity to food."

Sirius let out a bark of a laugh "That's how we know he's your son Prongs."

James looked unfazed as he countered "If memory serves it was you who snuck into the kitchens the most."

Sirius laughed "Sorry mate, can't hear you over the cake you bribed the house elves to make for Lily's 16th birthday then snuck out of the kitchens at 2am."

"And the 30 pounds of chocolate you stole to impress Moony in our 5th year?" James reminded with a wicked grin.

Sirius rolled his eyes while Remus blushed at the realization of where his stash of chocolate had come from.

"At least his plan worked Potter," Lily said teasingly, "Your cake escapade resulted in me throwing it at you face."

"And that my dear Lilypad is when I knew two things. 1. That I wanted to marry you and 2. That I needed to try and recruit you as a chaser because that was one of the most powerful throws I had ever seen."

Harry rolled his eyes at his parent's antics.

"Come on guys," Cartia said as she tugged on Sirius's hand, "I want to get all my schoolbooks so I can have read them all at least once before school starts"

Remus smiled while Sirius shook his head

"She's your daughter alright" Sirius said, sounding almost disappointed that his child was eager to do some pre-term reading.

As the group headed to the bookstore many people in stopped in the street to gawk at them. Some even went as far as to come up to James and Lily to shake their hands or mutter a few words of thanks before scurrying off. Harry was used to this, it happened every time they went out. Still, it made him slightly uncomfortable as people passing by would whisper about them in awe. A few people even approached Harry to tell him how lucky he was to have such famous parents who had done so much for the wizarding world. Harry didn't see them that way though, to him they were just Mum and Dad. Cartia used to joke that Harry should take advantage of his parent's fame and try and get free candy. Until of course, they both found out exactly why people were so enamored with Lily and James.

The little group walked into the bookshop and Cartia immediately began rushing around selecting different volumes from the list clutched in her hand. James sniggered as he observed this, "Geez Pads, Minnie isn't going to believe it when she finds out that your daughter is such a bookworm."

Sirius barked a laugh before countering "Of course she will Prongs, no kid can grow up around Moons without developing a strong attachment to the library. I'm actually surprised that Harry isn't more of a bookworm considering he was raised by Lily who pretty much lived in the Hogwarts library."

"Actually Harry is a bit of a bookworm; he just keeps it more hidden than Lils does. He's actually really into mysteries. Loves them in fact. Sherlock Holmes, The Da Vinci Code, basically anything with a mystery," James explained.

"Looks like he may be the perfect trouble-maker at Hogwarts Prongs, he's got Lily's brains, your charm, her wit and your prank planning. That's a deadly combo."

They both watched as Harry hefted the required Charms textbook from a nearby shelf and went over to pay for his books.

"Yeah," James said with a wistful smile, "But I'm worried about him going to Hogwarts Sirius."

Sirius stopped. James never called him Sirius unless he was being, well, serious. This was clearly something more than basic parental concern over his son being away from home.

"Prongs," Sirius started, "You know better than anyone how safe Hogwarts is. For goodness sake, you were head boy. And you know that nobody would try anything when McGonagall is headmistress. Minnie would string up anybody who tried to hurt Harry, you know that James. He'll be safe."

"It's not just that" James said creasing his brow, "I just worry about the questions the other kids will ask him. I mean strangers in the street ask us invasive questions, imagine what his classmates might come up with. That and you know that some people are still trying to get revenge on our family after…."

James was interrupted by Harry asking "Dad is it ok if we go with Uncle Remus to the chocolate shop?"

James and Sirius quickly put on huge faux smiles that didn't quite reach their eyes as James assured Harry "Sure thing bud, don't go overboard on the chocolate, ok."

"Yeah, and don't use my husband as an example, he eats too much chocolate. Actually take what he eats, halve it, halve that, take a third of that and that should be your maximum chocolate consumption." Sirius interjected.

Harry grinned at his uncle over his father's shoulder as he hugged James before hurrying out of the bookstore to find some chocolate.

James watched his son begin his search for sweets with an expression of pure pride and joy. He always considered Harry to be his greatest achievement. Lily always said that it was because Harry looked like a carbon copy of James. James did love that Harry looked like him, but what he liked most was that Harry had Lily's emerald green eyes. They were so striking it was hard not to stare at them. They reminded him of his Lily who had ensnared him with those bright green eyes from the moment they met. All he had ever wanted was for Harry to live a safe, happy life. Most parents wanted a normal life for their child, but after all the hardship that Lily and James and all their friends had gone through during the war, they wanted their son to have a better than normal life. They wanted him to live in luxury and have opportunities without raising him to be a spoilt brat. And they had done so very successfully, although if James kept giving him enchanted objects from muggle pop culture he wouldn't be that way for very long.

"James mate," Sirius said, interrupting James's thoughts, "Come on let's go and meet Moony and Harry at the chocolate shop. Car is just about done with her book buying."

James blinked a few times to process this information before finally shaking off the last bit of fog from his clouded thoughts. The little group headed back outside into Diagon Alley to meet the rest of their party at the Diagon Alley chocolate shop.

The chocolate shop had been set up by a French wizard named Cheux Devaunt who was on a first name basis with Remus who he claimed was his best customer. It was crammed with the most delightful treats one could imagine. Chocolates shaped like stars which exploded with shimmery edible glitter when you bit into them. Chocolate truffles which were a cheery sunshine yellow colour and had a cheering charm mixed in with the truffle center which made the consumer ceaselessly happy for two hours. There were little chocolate trains which were spelled to actually move around and puff out little clouds of sherbet smoke. When Harry was little those were his favorites. At the moment he opted for the little powers chocolates. They came in 4 different varieties. A little chocolate dumbbell which gave the eater super strength for five minutes, an aerated bubbly chocolate which had a potion which gave one force field capabilities for a few minutes when they bit into it, a delicate feather shaped creation which was laced with a levitation charm which caused the user to float around the room temporarily and a little caramel filled chocolate teardrop which allowed the consumer to control small amounts of water for about three minutes . Cartia loved the Christmas tree shaped chocolates which lit up in sequences like Christmas lights. Lily always loved the ones shaped like fireworks which exploded in ones mouth with pop rocks and made your skin turn shimmery. Remus's favorites were not sold over the counter at _Chex Chocolat_ ,his were specially made by Cheux .They were mixed with a potent caramelized version of the Wolfsbane potion. They kept him from changing and apparently you couldn't taste the difference if you tried. This made Cheux a very dear friend to the Potter-Black-Lupin clan and it made Remus a very loyal customer to the chocolate shop. However Sirius had caught him more than a few times with chocolates that were definitely not his special medical ones. Remus did always have a sweet tooth. Cartia got that from him, at least according to Sirius.

James, Sirius and Cartia entered the sweetshop and watched as Harry and a few other boys his age flew around the ceiling as two girls in the corner played catch with a ball of water. James felt better about sending Harry to Hogwarts as he watched him zooming around with glee. He had always loved getting to be with boys his age, a rare opportunity for an only child. James knew he couldn't keep Hogwarts from Harry. After all from the ages of 11 to 17 Hogwarts was more than a school.

Hogwarts was a home.


	3. Chapter 3: Getting Ready

A/N: Hi guys! Sorry this is a bit late, it's been hectic at work for a while. Next chapter, Harry and Cartia on the Hogwarts Express. Hope you like this chapter!

The first of September is one of the most important days of a young witch or wizard's life. It was a chaotic day of excitement, new friends and of course, crying mothers. It was the day that the students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry left to begin the school year. It was morning and all around Britain the soon-to-be students were trudging around their homes half-asleep, packing their trunks for Hogwarts. The Potter household was no exception.

"Mum where are my socks?", Harry called out as he rifled through his drawers.

"Have you checked the laundry hamper?" Lily replied from the bottom of the landing.

"Yes." Harry replied

"How about in the bottom of your clos…."

"I already checked in the bottom of my closet." Harry interrupted.

"JAMES," Lily called as she searched through the laundry basket. "CAN YOU FIND HARRY'S SOCKS?"

"Lil," James popped his head out from the kitchen doorway "I'm literally in the room right next to you."

Lily flushed bright red and stammered "I.. I.. I knew that. I mean… I would have known that… well obviously I didn't know that but I mean I could and STOP SMIRKING POTTER."

James struggled to hide his devious smirk that had appeared at the unusual event of his wife being lost for words. Lily shot him a murderous glare and his grin shrunk.

"MUM," Harry called from his upstairs bedroom, "STOP SCARING DAD, I NEED HIM TO HELP ME FIND MY SOCKS."

"Nice to know how much I mean to you bud" James said sarcastically as he tried to back out of Lily's danger zone.

"How much time do we have left?" Lily asked.

James checked his watch. "About half and hour."

Lily sighed "I'm excited for him James, I really am. It's just that I'm worried about him, you know how people treat him. He'll be treated like a mini celebrity, people will try and be friends with him for selfish reasons and I don't want that for him."

James's joking smile softened "Look Lil, I'll have a talk to him but trust me he'll be fine. He has your scathing tongue and my razor sharp wit. He'll be more than fine; he's going to be great."

Lily smiled but it didn't quite meet her eyes, "Ok but promise you'll talk to him."

"I'll go right now," James said.

"Wait," Lily handed James a pair of purple snitch covered socks, "They were under the couch,"

James smiled as he stuffed the socks in his coat pocket and headed up to his sons room.

Harry James Potter grew up with an artist mother, a quiddich fanatic father, a bookworm uncle and a motorcycle obsessed Sirius. This meant that he was exposed to very different styles and influences, which made for a rather interesting room. A whole wall was filled with bookshelves. These shelves where stacked with hundreds of books. Mostly mysteries, some textbooks and a few books about quiddich. Harry was very proud of his little library; he was particularly fond of his hardcover Sherlock Holmes series. The remaining walls were a mix of quiddich posters and artworks done by both him and Lily. His desk held stacks of books at least five high, his prized golden snitch given to him by his uncles on his birthday and various mechanical parts and tools that he tinkered with under the tutelage of his uncle Sirius. His easel was next to his broom in the corner of his room where the floor was heavily stained with various bright paint colours and muddy twig prints. At night the ceiling was bewitched to resemble softly glowing galaxies.

James stepped into Harry's room, "You in here bud?"

"Yeah over here," a muffled voice answered from behind a small mountain of spare parts.

James walked over to get a better view of the pile. He could see a small tuft of Harry's jet black hair over the top of the mountain of mechanical parts.

"Hey dad do you reckon that they'll let me bring my parts and tools to Hogwarts?" Harry asked as he threw a few textbooks across the room into his half-packed trunk.

"To be perfectly honest no, but you know what I always say," James said with a grin.

"Rules are only good for breaking!" Harry chorused along with his father.

"Tell you what bud, I'll send your parts to Sirius and he can look after them for you."

Harry gave James a doubtful look, "You do realize that you're basically going to give Uncle Sirius unrestricted access to my tools. There's no way that I'm ever seeing them again once he gets to tinkering with them."

"You know sometimes I think that you're too smart for your own good." James said shaking his head.

Harry grinned at his fathers teasing compliment.

"Listen Harry, we need to talk before you leave." James said.

Harry was nervous. His father called him many names, Bud, Mini Prongs, Mischief on Wheels, Champ and Marauder number 6 (Cartia had beat him out for 5th place by 4 weeks). But the one name James only called him when he was serious was Harry. Harry sat down beside his dad.

"Sure Dad, what do you want to talk about."

"You know about Voldemort" James started.

"Yeah, He was a really dark wizard. He killed thousands of people. And he died on Halloween night eleven years ago. At the cottage that you, Mum and I used to live in when I was a baby. His spell backfired and then he died."

"That's mostly right, but your mum and I haven't told you the whole story about the last part. He did come to our house that night and he did die, but not because a spell backfired. When we heard him blast open the door your mum took you upstairs, cast a protection charm around you and came back downstairs to help me fight him off. He came at us with everything he had and so did we. Buddy, you wouldn't believe how amazing your Mum was, there's a reason that she was top of our year and head girl. We were holding our own but he was skilled, and he wasn't wearing down like we were. Mind you, your mum and I had a few tricks up our sleeves. One of the perks of being an unregistered Animagus is that nobody expects you to randomly turn into a stag during a fight. And your mum well, she'd been working for years on perfecting a tricky little charm that she created for her N.E.W.T.S which tricked a person's wand into thinking that it was casting the correct spells when it was in fact simply shooting out bursts of light. We'd come up with a plan months earlier, if worst came to worst Lils would use the charm and when he used Avada Kedava on me I would "play dead, so to speak. Then when he stepped over me to get to your mother I would use the killing curse on him before he could know what hit him. The plan worked and we had killed him. That's why people stare at us in the streets and shake our hands in shops. Your mum and I aren't just well known because our last name is Potter, we're well known because your mum and I defeated the greatest dark wizard who ever lived."

Harry stared wide eyed at his father and swallowed.

He searched his fathers face for a trace of amusement or guilt to see if his father was playing a prank on him. None of the usual signs were there. This meant either his father wasn't kidding or he was getting better at lying.

Harry started to awkwardly laugh "Good one Dad, you almost had me. This is your most convincing one since you told me that I wouldn't be able to be an Animagus because there was only one allowed per family."

"Bud," James started, "I'm not kidding."

Harry blinked a few times to properly process the information.

"Okay," He began slowly, "So you and Mum defeated the most powerful wizard in the world. Not gonna lie, that's slightly overwhelming. Is there anything else I need to know? Any other colossal family secrets? Did you and Mum was a time turner to kill J.F.K?"

James smiled at his sons' sarcasm, "Nope, that's all of them. Although I wouldn't bring it up at Hogwarts that you and I are unregistered Animagi. It's awesome, but kind of illegal."

Harry grinned at the mention of their shared secret. "You do realize it's going to come up eventually. Like, if I get bored and want to explore the forbidden forest as an animal….."

"Both Minnie and your Mum would kill you." James interrupted.

Harry continued breezily as if he hadn't been interrupted, "Or if I get hungry and need to sneak out into the kitchen. It sure would be harder to get into trouble as a cute little puppy."

James quickly realized that his son was baiting him. Harry was playing to James's love of mischief of pranks.

"You have the map remember," James reminded, "There are enough secret passages for you to sneak into just about anywhere. Puppy or not."

When Harry had decided at the age of 10 to become an Animagus his family were all for it. Lily did require a little persuading but was reminded that the son of James Potter and Lily Evans was likely to just do it anyway. So Harry underwent the process. During this time everyone who knew about it made bets on which animal Harry would turn out to be. James was sure that it would be a stag like his was. Lily thought that it would turn out to be a lion because second to James, Harry was the most bravely reckless person she had ever met. Remus thought it would turn out to be a bird because Harry was such a natural flyer. Sirius was convinced that it would be a dog like his was, not for any particular reason other than that he wanted for it to be. Cartia thought that he would be a niffler because he was so good at finding the golden snitch. Harry had to constantly remind her that Animagi could only turn into non magical creatures. She in turn constantly teased Harry that he would turn out to be a fish, one of the most useless Animagi. McGonagall publicly refused to partake in any nonsense bets, especially since she was a registered Animagus who would never encourage illegal Animagi. Privately she agreed with Remus that Harry would be a bird type because of his aptitude for flying. To everyone's surprise it turned out that Sirius was correct. A witch or wizards Animagus form is determined by their dominant personality traits. Harrys combination of loyalty, mischief, bravery and friendship as his dominant traits made him ideal as a young dog. Unlike Sirius his dog wasn't all black, his was fluffy and white with black ears. Harry being a dog was perfect for sneaking around and charming people into giving him food or letting him into places. A bit too perfect actually, he had a tendency to sneak into rooms to lay out pranks perfectly as a dog to be less noticeable.

"Boys!" Lily yelled from downstairs, "The train leaves in twenty minutes and I'm not really looking forward to having to try and apperate outside of Hogwarts because we missed it."

"Coming!" Harry and James chorused in unison.

Harry and James rushed down the stairs, pulled on their coats and went to leave when Harry realized that he had forgotten something.

"I left Hedwig behind!" Harry cried out.

Hedwig was Harry's owl. The snowy white owl was Harry's tenth birthday present and Harry couldn't wait to take her to Hogwarts.

"Calm down Harry," Lily said, "Accio Hedwig!"

A silver cage flew down the stairs and zoomed into James's arms. The owl inside squawked in indignation.

"Ok bud we have everything, you ready?" James asked.

Harry looked at his home for what he knew would be the last time for months.

"I'm ready"


End file.
